Singapore, September 7th, 2010 - China's Sinopec has indefinitely canceled turnaround plans for itssolvents plants at Yanshan and Tianjin in September due to strong local demandand prices, industry sources said Tuesday.
Sinopec Beijing Yanshan had planned to shut the smaller of its twosolvents production lines at Yanshan on September 10 for planned maintenance.The two phenol-acetone production lines have a capacity of 160,000 mt/year and100,000 mt/year, respectively.
Sinopec Beijing Yanshan had planned to shut the smaller of its twosolvents production lines at Yanshan on September 10 for planned maintenance.The two phenol-acetone production lines have a capacity of 160,000 mt/year and100,000 mt/year, respectively.
Instead, both lines are now running at about 100% of capacity. On August27, Sinopec Yanshan increased its ex-works phenol offer prices to Yuan15,200/mt ($2,233/mt), up Yuan 600/mt from Yuan 14,600/mt on August 24.
Similarly, Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical dropped its turnaroundplans for its Tianjin-based plant, which can make 220,000 mt/year of phenoland 140,000 mt/year of acetone.
Sinopec Sabic Tianjin Petrochemical is a 50:50 joint venture betweenSaudi Basic Industries Corporation, or Sabic, and China Petroleum & ChemicalCorporation, or Sinopec.
The joint venture plant reduced its production to about 40-50% ofcapacity last week, down from about 60-70% in August.
Local demand is being driven by downstream bisphenol-A producers. Phenoland acetone jointly go into the production of BPA, a raw material used formaking polycarbonate.
The strong demand led to Sinopec Shanghai Mitsui Chemicals raising itsBPA offer prices to Yuan 18,000/mt on August 30, up Yuan 500/mt from Yuan17,500/mt.
A China-based source said other factors that influenced Sinopec'sdecision to cancel the turnarounds are maintenance plans by other localsolvents producers.
For instance, Bluestar Harbin Petrochemical is expected to shut itsphenol-acetone plant at Harbin, Heilongjiang province about mid-September fora 20-25 day turnaround.
The wholly owned subsidiary of China National Bluestar operates a plantthat can deliver 72,000 mt/year of phenol and 48,000 mt/year of acetone.
Also, Jilin Petrochemical, a subsidiary of PetroChina, is expected toshut its 120,000 mt/year solvents plant in Jilin province at the end ofSeptember for scheduled maintenance, lasting about a month. - Platts
Also, Jilin Petrochemical, a subsidiary of PetroChina, is expected toshut its 120,000 mt/year solvents plant in Jilin province at the end ofSeptember for scheduled maintenance, lasting about a month. - Platts
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